Salted Caramel Turtle Popcorn

Look out Cinnabon Popcorn, you have some serious competition!! So this past week was pretty rough and totally exhausting, and; well, just not fun at all. That's all I'm gonna say. So by Sunday night, the only thing I wanted in the whole wide world was chocolate and caramel and a funny movie so I could escape from reality. Dinner time rolled around and I had a sudden burst of inspiration, and this gooey, caramely, chocolatey popcorn was created. Yes, I said dinnertime. Yes, this is what I cooked for dinner. And yes, it was the best Sunday night dinner I ever ate. Along with watching "Diary of a Whimpy Kid" with my awesome family, it was better than a therapy session, which I definitely needed after this past week. So here's my recipe, hope you love it and try it for dinner soon!!

Note: This recipe makes a lot, so have a party (and invite my family:) or keep it in a ziploc, it's still awesomely delicious the next day.

Salted Caramel Turtle Popcorn
Print Recipe
24 cups popcorn (about 1 cup unpopped kernels. For this recipe it's best popped in a hot air popper.)
1 1/2 cups Pecans
14 Tablespoons Butter (1 stick + 6 Tablespoons)
1 3/4 cups Brown Sugar
1/3 cup Corn Syrup or Maple/Pancake Syrup
1 Tablespoon Molasses
1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 teaspoons Vanilla
2/3 cup Milk Chocolate Chips
2/3 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 teaspoons Vegetable Oil

Preheat oven to 250. Line 2 large baking sheets (I used 10 x 15 sheet cake pans) with parchment paper. Place popped corn in 2 large mixing bowls. Divide pecans and stir into popcorn.
In a large saucepan, melt butter. Stir in corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar, and sea salt. Heat to boiling, stirring frequently. Once mixture boils, stir continuously for 90 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. If you have kids they'll love seeing your caramel "explode"!! Spoon equal parts of the caramel over both bowls of popcorn and stir well to coat. Place popcorn onto your prepared baking sheets and place on 2 oven racks closest to the center of your oven. Cook in oven for 15 minutes. Stir your popcorn and rotate the baking sheets so they switch baking racks. (If you have a convection oven then cook at 225 and simply give your popcorn a good stir.) Cook for 15 minutes more, then set out to cool for 30 minutes. Just cool right on the baking sheets on the parchment paper. No mess, hurray!
Once popcorn has almost cooled, melt your chocolate. Stir both the milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips together in a double boiler or a frying pan on the stove over low heat. I don't ever, ever, melt chocolate in the microwave. Once chocolate has melted, stir in the vegetable oil to make it easier for drizzling. Drizzle chocolate over the caramel corn and serve!! YUMMY!! I can't wait for you all to try this!!